〈卻坐〉和〈失落的指環〉是楊牧新詩集《涉事》(2001/6)的開卷與終篇之作。除了延續前此唯美美也的浪漫風格外，近作更明顯寓示一抽象敻遼之虛無境界，乃往復具現於所有的美麗與憂鬱，實有與空茫的迴環辯證之間。不論在象徵意旨或語言文字的錘鍊上，楊牧都無時或已於自我精進。〈卻坐〉複古今詩人與中世紀武士，遠行追求的孤獨形象，恰亦指涉了〈失落的指環〉中「舊世紀最堅決的戰士」，同時也是「未來的戰士」，其對真理，忠誠，愛，與勇氣，無悔恆久的堅持。然則，此一斬妖屠龍之英雄氣概，雖得以躍出時空的範囿，但於人間現實的摧迫下，復不得不兩相倚依，糾葛著無盡的悲劇意。有嘗試就此切入，尋索貫穿《涉事》整部誠集的深層內蘊，並及於楊牧長期孜矻以赴的詩美學與哲學論述，以期打開某一「尚未誕生之世界」。

“Yet, I Sat Back” opened while “The Lost Ring” closed Yang Mu’s new album of poems Involved (June 2001). Continuing the inherent romantic style, Yang Mu’s latest piece implied a more preeminent sense of nihility to embody not only beauty and melancholy but something and nothing through repetitive arguments. For “Yet, I Sat Back” poets (past and present) and medieval knights are overlapped both destined to stride and search alone. “The most determined warrior in the old times” in “The Lost Ring” was also “the warrior belonging to the future,” who eternally holds on to loyalty, love, courage and morality. Despite that heroism could go beyond boundaries of time and space when resisting devil, it was, to the writer and readers’ sympathy, was tragically oppressed by reality as well. This essay plans to undermine Involved along with Yang Mu’s poetics and philosophy in order to present “a world not born yet.”